Sharron Kraus – Sing Cuckoo (Summer Is A-Coming In)

So much has been written about this 13th Century song that there’s not really a lot I can add. It’s a celebration of the excitement you feel when Summer is on its way (so whoever wrote it was clearly not living in Phoenix)

Sharron Kraus is such a figurehead for real, living but slightly dark folk music in the present day that it would have been ridiculous to undertake a project like this and to not at least try asking her to take part. She’s created an incredible series of albums, not to mention some outstanding collaborations like Rusalnaia (her duo with Gillian Chadwick), her trio with Meg Baird & Helena Espvall as well as work with United Bible Studies, Belbury Poly and American author Justin Hopper.

For all her grounding in English folk, she’s created a truly international body of work and when a new album drops, its a major event. Definitely an artist you have to follow on Bandcamp.

Sharron has created a deconstructed, haunting rendition of the song. There’s an air of melancholy, which Sharron explains was caused by the realization that when the song was written, the cuckoo was much more common than today. The British Trust for Ornithology states that since the early eighties, Cuckoo numbers have dropped by 65%. Beautiful and sad at the same time. It’s a wonderful reinvention

https://wasistdas.bandcamp.com/album/ballads-of-seduction-fertility-and-ritual-slaughter

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